Car-seal



(No Model.)

Pp-G. GILLMORE.

. Patented July 24, 1883 iIlI . fiwerz 'a z" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREEMAN G. GILLMORE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CAR-SEAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 281,863, dated July 24, 1883.

Application filed March .27. 1883.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FREEMAN C. GILLMORE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seals for Freight-Oars, Mail- Bags, 820.; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to seals of the class designed to indicate, upon mere inspection, whether or not a freight-car, or whatever the seal may be used for, has been tampered with, and my object is to produce a more effective and more easily adjustable device for the purpose than has heretofore been in use, without increasing the cost. I

The device on which I have invented an improvement belongs to the order of seals for the purpose named, which comprise a strip of frangible tin passed through the staple, and having its opposite ends interlocked in such a manner that any attempt to separate them will cause a fracture of the metal.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of the device before it is applied, showing the raised side of the corrugation; Fig. 2, a similar view of the device, bent around and showing the manner in which the ends are interlocked; Fig. 3, a similar view, showing the ends secured together, after being interlocked, by raising a bead in the corrugation formed between the slots, into which a similar bead, formed at the same time upon the tongue, fits; Fig. 4, a central longitudinal section, taken on the line 4 40f Fig. 2, turned with its upper edge to the front; and Fig. 5, a central longitudinal section, taken on the line 5 5 of Fig. 3, turned with its upper edge to the front.

A is a strip of cheap frangible tin, which,

- to possess these properties, should be of the lowest grade. Near one end two vertical slots, 12 and o, are formed, and the opposite end consists of a tongue, 20, of proper length to allow of its being passed through the slots 22 and o, and of sufficient length to reach to the extremity of the end provided with the said slots, when thus passed through the latter. The strip A, having the slots 0 and o and the (No model.)

' tongue at, is formed at'a single blow by means of a suitable stamp, and the stamp is also so formed that, when the slots are cut, the metal between them shall be slightly depressed, forming a corrugation, t, on the opposite side, as shown in the drawings, in order that the tongue a may more readily be passed through the slots 1; and v.

To apply the device to a freight-car the strip is passed through the staple, which has previously been slipped over the hasp in such a way that the side having the convex face of the corrugation 25 shall be presented to the operator when the extremities are brought together, and the tongue u passed without difficulty through the slot 0 and through the slot 1;, as represented in Fig. 2.

The purpose of seals of this class being, as before stated, to indicate upon mere inspection whether the object which it is intended to protect has been tampered with, it now remains to secure the interlocked ends together in such a manner that the tongue cannot be withdrawn, and that breakage of the strip forming the seal will be the essential and only means of unfastening it. This is accomplished by means of a suitable punch, which is caused to indent the metal of both the tongue and the slotted end, as shown at s in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

Instead of making the die of the punch of the form adapted to make the indentation represented in the drawings, it may be of the form of a conic frustum, thus giving a recess flaring at the sides and flat at the bottom. A recess of this particular form possesses some advantages, since any pressure exerted against the metal for the purpose of straightening it out to its original form will have the effect of crimping it together, thus causing it to hold even more tightly.

It will be seen that the attaching of the seal is but the work of a few moments, and that, when once secured, a separation of the parts without breakage is an absolute impossibility.

WVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

I11 a car-seal, the strip A, of frangible tin,

provided at one end with the tongue 14, and. vented by indenting the metal of both the at the opposite end with the transverse slots corrugation and tongue by means of a suitable e and Q) to receive the tongue, and with the instrument.

transverse corrugation t, between the slots, FREEMAN G. GILLMORE. 5 to permit the tongue to be passed readily In presence of throughthe latter, substantially as described, 7M. H. DYRENFORTH,

whereby withdrawal of the tongue may be pre EDWARD MCOAFFREY. 

